The Mystery of Natalie Wood
0February 26, 2021 by srk5634
Hello Everyone!
Just as a warning before you read too far, there will be a slight amount of disturbing imagery. If anyone is uncomfortable with that, please don’t feel bad about leaving!
Natalie Wood was a star; she was in many movies during her young life. She was in the 1947 Miracle on 34th Street and West Side Story, as well as many more. She had the potential to continue to create wonderful movies. If only she hadn’t washed-up on that beach.
Natalie Wood
November 28th, 1981
There sat Natalie Wood, her husband Robert Wagner, Christopher Walken (yes, that Christopher Walken), and Dennis Davern (the captain of Wood and Wagner’s yacht). They were drinking champagne and eating dinner at a restaurant in Doug’s Harbor Reef in Catalina (an island off of Los Angeles).
They reportedly really enjoyed that champagne because the manager of the restaurant was worried they wouldn’t make it back to their boat in the dinghy safely.
Walken and Wood had been flirting throughout the weekend and Davern reported that Wagner smashed a wine bottle on a table and yelled “What are you trying to do, f*** my wife?” at Walken. Wood left and slammed the door of her room. When Wagner went to confront her, another yelling match broke out.
Davern had lied to the police by the omission of this fight.
The captain, Davern, heard the dinghy being untied, and shortly after Wagner returned disheveled, “tousled”, “sweating profusely” (Biography).
Walken was already in his room and Davern and Wagner had a few more drinks before Wagner decided to go check on Natalie at around 11:50 p.m. but was unable to find her.
When Davern suggested turning on the floodlights to look for her in the water, Wagner rejected the idea.
We don’t want to do anything, Dennis, because we don’t want to alert all these people,
They realized that the dinghy was gone.
Davern also left out the fact that Wagner told him not to turn on the lights in his statement to the police.
November 29th, 1981
The yacht radioed to shore for help at 1:30 a.m. and at 3:30 a.m. the Coast Guard was called.
At 8:00 a.m. Natalie Wood’s body was found on a secluded beach about a mile from the yacht. She was 43 years old.
November 30th, 1981
A deputy medical examiner at the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Office, Dr. Joseph Choi, performed the autopsy on Wood. Her blood alcohol content was .14 percent (almost 2x the legal impairment rate of today) at her time of death.
There were also traces of motion-sickness medication and painkillers in her bloodstream so the effects of the alcohol were heightened.
She had multiple bruises on her arms, legs, and body; as well as a scratch on her face. There was no indication as to what caused the injuries nor were there any clues as to when they happened. Choi believed they were consistent with a fall overboard and an attempt to get onto the dinghy so he wrote it off and declared her death an accident.
September 1st, 1997
Christopher Walken spoke up about the event for the first time with his theory about how it happened.
Anybody there saw the logistics—of the boat, the night, where we were, that it was raining—and would know exactly what happened. You hear about things happening to people—they slip in the bathtub, fall down the stairs, step off the curb in London because they think that the cars come the other way—and they die. You feel you want to die making an effort at something; you don’t want to die in some unnecessary way. (Roberts)
What happened that night only she knows, because she was alone. She had gone to bed before us, and her room was at the back. A dinghy was bouncing against the side of the boat, and I think she went out to move it. There was a ski ramp that was partially in the water. It was slippery—I had walked on it myself. She had told me she couldn’t swim; in fact, they had to cut a swimming scene from [Brainstorm]. She was probably half asleep, and she was wearing a coat. (Roberts)
Walken’s theory was consistent with the initial police findings.
November 17th and 18th, 2011
The LA County Sheriff’s Department reopened the case, 30 years after Natalie Wood’s death. They said the reason for it was receiving “additional information” sources unidentified who called the authorities.
Davern came out about his lie to the police in his original statement. Davern also claimed that he believed Wagner was responsible for Natalie’s death.
The case was reopened.
January 14th, 2014
The LA County Sheriff’s Department changed Wood’s cause of death to “drowning and other undetermined factors” instead of “accidental drowning”.
They changed it after it was determined that some of the bruises found on Wood’s body were incurred before her death. They couldn’t officially conclude when the injuries were sustained so they can’t ask for an alibi from those involved.
February 1, 2018
Wagner was officially named as a person of interest in the death of Natalie Wood’s for the first time in the history of the case. He was 88 at the time.
2020
Natalie Wood’s daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, confronted her father on-camera about speculation that he was involved in her mom’s death.
He denied the accusations and Natasha offered emphatic support. She does not believe he was involved in the death of her mother. The movie was called Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind
There is little evidence of an actual crime, just some bruises from before her death.
Two different sources have come forward about Wagner pushing Wood during a fight. One was Daverne when he thought he was off-camera, the other is a confidential source close to Christopher Walken who said he talked about seeing it.
An intern named Franco at the L.A. Coroner’s Office who worked on Natalie Wood’s case said that there was significant head trauma and the friction burns on her thighs that were once thought to be from her getting into the dinghy, were suspicious. He believed them to be from someone shoving her off of the dinghy because they went in the wrong direction. This idea aligned with the brusing on her thighs and shins. Someone would have had to pull or push her off of the dinghy to create wounds like those.
When Franco mentioned it to the Doctor, the doctor nodded and said,
Some things are best left unsaid. (Finstad)
However it was written up, that’s all you need to know, (Finstad)
Franco believes that “Natalie tried to hoist herself onto the dinghy from the water. ‘Someone,’ Franco said, ‘was pushing her down and wouldn’t let her stay on'” (Finstad). He also has said that he kept his head down and played into it because the Coroner’s Office clearly didn’t want people poking around, they werep participating in a cover-up.
The fight between Wood and Wagner was so loud, it could be heard from other boats. One such boat owner was Marilyn Wayne, a retired stockbroker. She claims that she heard someone cry for help the night of Wood’s death at around midnight.
Help me, someone please help me, I’m drowning. (Walkter)
She tried calling harbor patrol but no one responded. The local sheriff told her that a helicopter would come; it never came. Through the yelling, she heard a man’s voice slurring
Oh, hold on, we’re coming to get you. (Walkter)
Wayne claims that she received a written death note after Wood’s death.
If you value you life, keep quiet about what you know. (Walkter)
She contacted her attorney. Nothing came of it.
A compelling pieces of information though, is Natalie’s intense fear of water. Her superstitous Russian mother was told, by a “gypsy”, that Natalie was going to die in dark water and ever since then, Natalie had been terrified.
Lana Wood, Natalie’s sister, has said “’She would never go near that dinghy’” (Walkter).
One of the saddest parts is, she probably would have survived if she had taken off her jacket. She was wearing a nightgown, tall wool-socks, and a down jacket. The clothes retained so much water that they were still wet 24 hours after they found her body. It is estimated that the saturated weight of the jacket alone was between 30 and 40 pounds. Many experts believe that it was the weight of the jacket that caused her to drown. Her cognitive processes were impaired from all the alcohol so she didn’t think about taking it off, she just knew she was cold, scared, and drowning (Walkter).
One truth is, we will most likely never know what actually happened to poor Natalie Wood that night.
What is your opinion on the case? Do you think Robert Wagner killed his wife? Do you think it was an accident? Maybe one of the other men on-board was involved?
Sources –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Wood#Death
https://www.biography.com/news/natalie-wood-death-mystery
https://doyouremember.com/60781/12-suspicious-contradictory-facts-mysterious-death-natalie-wood/2
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a32420871/natalie-wood-death-true-story-timeline/
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/03/natalie-wood-death-murder-robert-wagner-book
Category Unsolved Cases | Tags: Unsolved
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